Duval School Board approves changing Forrest High's name

Duval County School Board members voted 7-0 Monday to change the name of Nathan B. Forrest High School, casting aside the name that many associate with slavery, Civil War crimes and racism.

The meeting, which was packed, erupted in applause when the vote was tallied.

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The vote means that today's seniors, the graduating class of 2014, will be the last to graduate under the Forrest High name. The name will be changed as of July 1, 2014.

What the new name will be hasn't been decided. The board members voted to consider proposed names that students and residents favor.

School Board members said they believe they gave people on both sides of the issue plenty of time and opportunity to voice their views. During the meeting before the vote, community members spoke to the board for nearly 90 minutes.

This followed several public meetings, surveys and other discussions.

Most board members said their decision to change the school's name was based on a desire to end division in the community and to encourage today's students, 61 percent of whom are African American.

"I will do my job as a leader today and move past this controversy, which is dividing my home," said Fred "Fel" Lee, a board member, who, ironically, quoted something that supporters say was written by Forrest about a need for reconciliation.

Before the board voted, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti detailed the results of surveys the district recently collected from various groups, including students, staff, people who live in the school's boundaries, alumni, PTA and the School Advisory Council.

Of the 1,035 students who voted, 64 percent wanted the name change, compared to 36 percent who did not, Vitti said. Alumni had the second largest group of votes: 94 percent of the 339 votes were to keep the Forrest name. Seventy-five percent of the 93 nearby residents voted to keep the name.

Vitti said the surveys showed that most of those who wanted to keep the name indicated they wanted to maintain historic references and community traditions.

Among the 111 faculty votes, 52 percent voted to retain the school's name, Vitti said, but after they learned that the cost to change the name wasn't coming out of the school budget, many changed their minds and favored a name change, Vitti said. The district plans to use its own funds or donated funds to pay for the estimated $400,000 to change the uniforms, signs, marquis and gym floor, he said.

Vitti recalled how in 1959, students at the school had voted for a different name but the board back then overruled them. He said now he hopes this board will pay attention to today's students' wishes now for a new name.

"It is time for Jacksonville to move on," Vitti said. "I'm not in a position to judge Nathan B. Forrest, but undeniably the Nathan B. Forrest name has divided this community."

Some of the supporters of the name, including many Forrest alumni, were angry about his recommendation and the board vote.

Several told the School Board that the name change was a waste of money and would obliterate their history at the high school. They also warned that the name change, which some called an exercise in political correctness, would result in other school name changes in Jacksonville and wipe out Southern traditions.

Teresa Cluff, a graduate of Forrest High in 1970, predicted that this vote would not end the matter; the community would not rest easy.

"This isn't going to stop the divide; this is just the beginning," she said. "Fifty schools in Duval County are named after somebody - black or white. That's $500,000 per school, $25 million. Where are you going to find the money?"

Kenyatta Malcom, a 1993 graduate, said she was proud to graduate with her friends at her school but she was never proud of the school's name. She told of people outside the region asking her about her "KKK school," and of walking to the school office as a student and passing a Nathan Bedford Forrest portrait on which someone wrote "The Devil Himself" below it.

"For the future of today's students, now is the time for a change," she said.

Vitti asked that the board allow him to ask students and community members this week for a new name, which he expects to present to the board at its next meeting January 7. Students also will be asked if the mascot, the Rebel, would be changed and whether to keep the school's maroon and gray colors.

Vitti said that the district's recent survey of students indicate that the mostly likely new names are West Side High or Firestone High, after the street it's on. Students will get to vote between the two names on Tuesday and Wednesday at school, and alumni and community members can cast votes at the school Thursday through Saturday.

"I do not believe we've engaged community thoroughly on what the new name should be," Vitti told the School Board.

Denise Amos: (904) 359-4083

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